Keith Richards Says ‘It Wouldn’t Take a Twist of the Arm’ for the Rolling Stones to Make Another Blues Album

The band has been hinting at this new LP, its first record of original studio material since 2005's A Bigger Bang, for a while now. Plans were put on hold last year when the Stones released a covers album consisting of blues songs, Blue & Lonesome, that spontaneously came together during sessions for the next studio record.

Richards sat down for an installment of "Ask Keith Richards," which you can watch above, and was asked: "Are you inspired to get back in the studio with the Stones and do some more recording?"

"Yes, we are -- very, very shortly," he replied. "Cutting some new stuff and considering where to take it next. Blue & Lonesome caught us a little bit by surprise in that we figured it was something we had to do, but we didn't expect the response."

Richards pointed out that the positive response to the album leads to the question of the "inevitable volume two." "I don't think we're going to sucker into that straight away," he said. "But it wouldn't take a twist of the arm to do some more of that. It's such fun to record, and there's plenty more where that came from."

Blue & Lonesome, the Stones' best-reviewed album since the '80s, has revived the band, Richards added. He explained that they're using it as a "boost to their energy" and that it's encouraged their "viability" as they move forward.

In the meantime, the group is set to release a new book and companion DVD in September that collects its radio and TV performances from the '60s. Rolling Stones on Air in the Sixtiescharts their rise from a letter sent to the BBC in 1963 to a decade-capping television special broadcast by the network in 1969.